And now, for what you have all been waiting for. The Philadelphia Phillies start their run to repeat at 2:37 today.

Cliff Lee makes his first career postseason start in Game 1, and will face off against Ubaldo Jimenez, the man who helped close out a sweep against the Phillies in 2007. Lee may be a newcomer, but his credentials speak for themselves in the regular season – let’s hope it translates to October baseball. In August, Lee faced the Rockies in his second start with the team, and did quite well. He held the Rox to just one run over seven innings while fanning nine. The Fightin’s fans will surely take a similar effort today.

Jimenez pitched 6 1/3 innings back in ’07 against the Phils and struck out five while giving up just one run. The silver lining there is he walked four batters, and he’s been known to do that a lot. With some patience, the Phillies can get to Jimenez early and often.

Couple that with the winds today, and we could have an exciting offensive match up. The wind is blowing from left field out to right, giving the slew of lefty bats for the Phillies some leverage. Let’s hope the jet stream grabs an Utley fly ball, helping him to get moving here in the early goings of the playoffs.

Your Gameday Beer – Post Road Pumpkin Ale
Oktoberfests aren’t the only beers appropriate for the month of October – you’d be surprised how you can make a beer that tastes like pumpkin but isn’t gross. The Brooklyn Brewery secret for this beer is to mask most of the pumpkin flavor with spices such as cinnamon, brown sugar, clove and nutmeg. Though not the best pumpkin beer out there, it is definitely one worth trying on this crisp afternoon of playoff baseball. Have it with some roast turkey, like in one of those Gobbler sandwiches from WaWa. – By Brian